Blacker Places
by Corsets and Guns
Summary: My cock arsed attempt at a Harry Potter fanfiction. It is incredibly boredom induced, and mostly surrounding Bellatrix, Narcissa, Lucious, Snape and their Death Eater activities. Rated for language and content, but go ahead and read anyway.


Cicadas chirped in the evening sunlight. (A/N: I admit, I kind of stole that from the beginning of The Acolyte... sorry **redplanetes**, don't hurt me... if you like, I can delete!)

It had been another abominably hot day - the heat wave taking its toll on the unfortunates who had to go about their daily business in it.

Of course, it wasn't just another natural disaster.

'Shall we give them something to complain about?'

Bella Lestrange was grinning manically, standing beside her sister with her wand drawn. The two were freshly apparated into America to give Albus Dumbledore and his little army of children something to worry about.

'Go on, Cissa, I dare you to blast a car.'

Narcissa rolled her eyes and took out her own wand. 'We weren't supposed to be blasting cars, Bella, we were supposed to be maintaining the global heat wave and get Dumbledore on edge.'

'Yeah, yeah... but Avery's shift starts in fifteen minutes and we get to go to bed. Just _one_ car?' Bellatrix begged - intending to do it even without her sister's permission. 'How is anyone going to notice anything if we don't make things more obvious?'

'_One_ car, Bella, and if you cause another pile-up you are _so_ in for it.'

Grinning like a kid in a candy store, Bellatrix carefully selected her car and aimed her wand at it. '_Volincia_!'

The car unexpectedly flipped and landed on top of the vehicle in front. The blue Mustang behind it slammed on the brakes too late and joined the mess, soon followed by four or five other cars and a huge black truck.

'Are you satisfied now?' Narcissa sighed, shaking her head at her elder sister's immaturity. 'You've killed about eight muggles and totalled nine vehicles in total. That's a record even for you.'

Bellatrix was saved answering by a short, portly Death Eater apparating behind her. 'Evening ladies.' Avery grimaced at the mess of cars in front of them and eyed Bella suspiciously. 'Your work, I take it?'

'Don't know what you're talking about.' Bella said airily.

'Yeah... I'm sure you don't.'

Smirking, Narcissa grabbed her sister's arm before she could get into a fight and side-long apparated to the Malfoy Manor.

Lucious and Draco were in the Entrance Hall when they arrived, arguing over something unimportant... from what the sister's could tell it involved a dead House Elf.

'He kept dropping my stuff on the floor!' Draco protested furiously. His father's head looked ready to explode, and Bella wasted no time in informing him of this.

'Draco has just killed Loxe!' Lucious said to his wife in a strangled voice. 'Your son has _killed_ one of our House Elves!'

'He's your son too, Lucious.' Narcissa pointed out, handing her cloak to a hovering servant. 'Bella will be joining us for dinner while Rodolphus takes care of some business in Paraguay.'

She headed for the kitchens, apparently to inform the House Elves that they would have a guest for dinner. Bella threw her cloak at the servant and watched Lucious continue to yell at his son about killing the house staff.

'You should be proud he has mastered the killing curse, Lucious.' She smirked to her brother-in-law. 'As I seem to remember, you didn't manage it until your twentieth birthday, where you killed cousin Angelo's pet owl.'

Lucious narrowed his eyes at her and swept out of the room, cloak swirling behind him impressively. Draco watched him vanish before turning to his Aunt and grinning nastily - a feat he had inherited from her.

'Did he really kill Angelo's owl?'

The dinner was laid out beautifully - it was obvious to everyone that Narcissa had a guest. Even when it was only her sister visiting she had to pull out all the stops.

'I hear Rabastan is breaking out of Azkaban.' Narcissa said conversationally, popping a piece of meat into her mouth and glancing at her sister. Bellatrix remained stonily silent.

'I hardly think so. The man may be a ruthless fighter, but he has the brains of an ox.' Lucious snorted.

Bellatrix looked up and caught Draco's eye. The boy was smirking slightly at the turn of conversation, and most of the malice and amusement was directed at her. He had been there the day Rabastan cursed Bella. Rod and his brother had been in the middle of one of their little fights and a bored Bellatrix split them up with a hex, not dodging quick enough when Rabastan fired one at her.

'You aren't still sore about that, are you?' Draco muttered, grinning under the pretence of drinking.

'Evidently yes.'

The boy snorted into his pumpkin juice and received a suspicious look from his parents. Bella idly sampled some of the wine set in front of her, pulling a face when the sour liquid burnt her throat on the way down.

'Lucious... what the hell is this?' She demanded, setting the goblet down with a thud.

'Elf made wine.'

'It's disgusting.' Bella accused. 'You seriously drink this stuff?'

'Yes, Narcissa and I have acquired quite a taste for it. But then again, we did always prefer the finer things in life... perhaps this isn't something you can compare to.'

Bellatrix's jaw dropped and her wand was in her hand in a second. Lucious whipped his own out, ready for any attack she sent his way.

'Stop! This is a dinner table, do not be so _rude_!' Narcissa shrieked, slamming her fists down on the table surface and glowering at her husband and sister.

Lucious was the first to lower his wand, glaring at Bellatrix and sitting back down to his meal. His sister-in-law followed suit, grinning triumphantly.

'Good... if you're going to wind each other up then don't speak to one another.'

Narcissa went back to her meal - determined to finish it in peace. They were like this every time she invited Bella over. One would make a seemingly innocent comment, pair it with a snide look and things would escalade from there. Rod had had to drag his wife away from Lucious' throat at one point.

'Bella, would you like to spend the night here? That way we can be at the meeting point early tomorrow morning, saving me the hassle of directing myself through that blasted maze of yours.' Narcissa offered, glancing across at her sister.

'If it's not a problem.'

'It isn't.'

Draco and Lucious remained silent for the remainder of the meal, listening to the women's conversation with barely-concealed disinterest. The younger Malfoy was glad to be away by the end.

'Narcissa, I'm going to pay a visit to Severus.'

Lucious cleared his throat and rose from the table, setting his utensils neatly on the empty plate. His wife nodded and, once her head was turned, Lucious shot Bellatrix a complacent look before exiting the room.

'Git.' Bella muttered, sitting back on the expensive dining chair. 'When will we be visiting mother?'

The Baroness Black was renown through the family for being one elderly widow you did _not_ want to get in the bad books with. She was a cynical, cruel old woman and the only people she even acknowledged were her own family - and even then there were rumours of mysterious deaths in her Manor.

'When do you want to see her?' Narcissa shrugged, heading for the lounge and indicating that Bella should follow her.

'I don't. It's purely an obligation that I check the old witch is still alive every few months.'

Bellatrix chuckled at her own comment and swept lazily after her sister, sitting down on the luxurious velvet armchair by the fireplace.

'You shouldn't talk about her like that.'

'And why not? There was a time when she scared the living hell out of me, but that time is far gone, sis.' Bellatrix grinned brightly. 'So this meeting tomorrow... you haven't told me what it's for.'

'The Dark Lord wants to see us. Crabbe delivered the message and said it was something to do with trust. We are to meet the Lord in his hidden Mansion at five a.m. tomorrow morning.'

'Trust? Hmm... did Crabbe say who else was going?'

'No. I assumed it was either everyone or just us.' Narcissa shrugged and offered her sister a glass of wine, which Bella declined with a disgusted face. 'Either way, it's probably better that you stay here for the night.'

'Yeah... although I don't see what you find so trivial about the maze.'

Bella and Rod had had a maze build around the outside of their Manor, to serve the purposes of protection and Bella's sick sense of humour whenever an unsuspecting muggle got caught in it. Narcissa herself had had a problem with it once, and her sister had only just arrived in time to stop the thorny tendrils crushing her skull.

'It's pointless, Bella. You and Rod don't need it for protection; the only purpose it serves is for your horrible sense of humour.'

'Have you ever seen a muggle get caught in one of them? It was hilarious... you should have been there.'

'Whatever. Can you imagine what Andromeda would say if she knew what you had waiting for muggles in that maze?' Narcissa sat down and sipped her wine. 'She'd flip.'

'Yeah... I should stick that fat husband of hers in there, shouldn't I?'

'What was his name again? Ted, I think it was. What on earth did she see in him!'

'Not a clue.' Bella shrugged.

'I remember the look on your face when she told the family that she was pregnant with a muggle's kid.' Narcissa laughed out loud and set her wine down on the glass coffee table. 'You looked ready to throttle her.'

'I _was_! Don't you remember that father had to hold me back while Andromeda ran off?'

The two sisters sat in an amused silence before Narcissa suggested that they get some rest. 'You can have your favourite guest room, if you like.'

'Thanks.'

They departed and headed in separate directions, Narcissa checking that her son wasn't planning on staying up too late before entering her own room. Lucious returned home three hours after her eyelids dropped, rather pissed off at the way his conversation with Snape had gone.

It wasn't Narcissa's room he headed for.

She was asleep when he gently closed the door.

'Bella...' He whispered in a sing-song voice. Bellatrix rolled over and scowled at him.

'What the fuck do you want?'

'Just a little fun... come on, since when were you the one to deny fun?' Lucious grinned, moving over to the bed and sitting on one side.

Bella leaned forward so that their lips brushed. 'You do know that your wife is three rooms down, don't you?'

'Yes. Makes it all the more interesting.'

Lucious pulled her into a rough kiss, pulling her closer with one arm while trailing the other down her ribs. He felt inclined to point out that she wasn't one to preach nobility - she fucked her brother-in-law and husband on alternate nights before Rabastan got thrown into Azkaban. And even then she still had time for Lucious.

She slammed him into the wall and dragged his head down by the hair - making the kiss more comfortable for her but more awkward for him.

'Remind you of the good old schooldays, does it Lucious?' She smirked. In response, Malfoy spun her around and threw her back onto the double bed, pouncing after her.

'Oh definitely. Only this time there's more of a threat of Narcissa bursting in and catching us...'

He lowered his head and kissed her again, white-blonde hair falling over her shoulders. Bella swept it round the back of his head and held it there painfully with one hand, grinning against his mouth at the snarl it provoked.

'Don't be such a wuss.'

'Fuck you, bitch.'

'I thought that was your plan?'

Lucious reached down and ripped the small, silk shift away from her waif-like body and trailed a cold hand down her back, revelling in her involuntary shudder.

'So where did you say Rodolphus was again?' He sneered. 'For your sake I hope it's nowhere close.'

'Actually, I'd say that was more for _your_ sake. After all,' Bella smirked, flipping him off her and straddling him so that their faces were inches apart, 'my husband could kick your ass.'


End file.
